


Seeds of Discord Part 41

by kbj1123



Series: Wonder Woman & Captain America [42]
Category: Captain America - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Wonder Woman - All Media Types
Genre: Crossover Pairings, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Epic Battles, F/M, Marvel Universe, One True Pairing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-26
Updated: 2015-05-26
Packaged: 2018-04-01 10:07:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4015687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kbj1123/pseuds/kbj1123
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Someone or something is causing violent riots to erupt all over the U.S., and whatever it is, it wreaks havoc with both Wonder Woman's health and Bruce Banner's ability to keep his rage in check.</p><p>The team reassembles in a battle between gods and heroes. A hero makes an enormous sacrifice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seeds of Discord Part 41

The clash of metal and shouts of battle cut through rising dust as the team ascends the last hill. From the apex, they watch Thor and Tony grapple with three or four demigods each. Diana recognizes all of them as sons and daughters of the Goddess of Night. Vines wind snakelike from between cracks in the marble floor and slither over and through the ruined columns and altars of Apollo. The fight has centered at the feet of Apollo’s cracked twenty-foot statue. A small, open-air vestibule leads to the altar and statue of Artemis, which Diana recognizes from the last time she was in this place. The four of them run into the melee. When she spots Phanes and Nyx, who still embodies a mortal man, she leaps upward and flies. The two gods have pinned Steve to the marble floor near Apollo’s enormous foot, and Eris stands behind his head with her longsword raised. Steve’s shield lies dented several feet away. As he struggles to break free from the gods’ grasp, Eris prepares to plunge her sword into his chest. Diana slides from the sky, feet-first, sidewise into Eris’ shin, knocking her into a low table. It cracks in two and Eris falls on her back, causing a mist of dust and dirt to rise up. Steve takes advantage of the confusion and lurches forward, slamming both gods’ heads into one another. He breaks free, then dives for his shield. The gods give chase. 

Eris to get to her feet. “Let’s finish this,” Diana snarls. She takes a few steps backward, toward the vestibule which leads to her patron goddess. 

Eris grabs her sword and glares at Diana. Then she lunges toward her. Diana leaps backward and smiles. “Come and get me,” Diana teases. Eris is unrelenting and fast. She sprints aside and then forward. Diana barely has time to swerve from the tip of Eris’ blade. She jumps back. Eris pursues, this time leaping straight forward, closing the distance between her body and Diana’s. Diana ducks and Eris misses her. A tangle of vines falls on top of Diana, ensnaring her.

“Not quite your SHIELD gymnasium here,” Eris growls. “You are in my domain now, and you are going to die, Princess.” She wields the sword over her shoulders. It whizzes down toward Diana’s shoulder. The air slashes across her ear. She lunges sideways but falls in the knotted vegetation at her feet. Hot pain sears through her shoulder where Eris made contact, and she shouts out in surprise. She jumps to her feet and leaps backward again. 

##

Meanwhile, Steve has heard Diana’s shout. Remembering the outcome of Diana’s last fight with Eris, his heart rate practically quadruples. He rushes at Phanes with his shield and smashes it into Phanes’ right arm. Phanes drops his sword and falls backward. He curls his arms and legs into his chest, ready to repel Steve. Steve has no time to wrestle, though. He has to end this and help Diana. Before he can grab the sword, Nyx tackles him from behind and Phanes leaps to his feet. Steve is furious. As Phanes runs at him, Steve sweeps his legs out. Nyx loses his grip on Steve and stumbles back while Phanes falls backward into a pile of marble arrows from the statue of Apollo’s bow. Blood seeps from beneath his head. The body turns pale, then shudders, then goes still. Steve spins on his heels, ready to face off with Nyx. 

##

“That. Hurt.” Diana glowers at her enemy. Eris smirks and runs forward as she slashes at Diana. Diana feints and keeps the two of them at sword’s length. The sudden, jerky movements cause the scenery to blur. Dust and tiny marble shards prick at her wound and sting her eyes as she continues to fall back. She draws Eris further and further away from the rest of the battle, toward the partially demolished statue of Artemis.

This part of the holy site is in worse shape than that of Apollo. As she parries Eris’ blows, she stumbles over jagged gravel and slippery stone shards. The wound burns and throbs. A thousand needles prick past the open wound. She backs into a column. Eris bellows and rushes at her. Diana dives sideways, onto the stone shards. Eris crashes into the column, causing it to fall backward, pinning Diana’s right arm to the ground. She feels the definitive snap of bone.

##

Even in the fray, Steve hears his wife cry out from across the two temples. He no longer cares about Nyx’s sword. He slams his body into Nyx, but Nyx jumps backward and readies his stance, reestablishing the distance between them. It occurs to Steve that they could dance around like this all day. There is only one way to end this. He pretends to hesitate. Nyx charges.

##

On the other end of the site, Diana throws her weight into the column and rolls it off of her arm while Eris regains her balance. She can still move her arm; she’s reasonably sure only one of the bones of her forearm is broken, not both. When she moves it a few inches her arm resists, sending shockwaves up and down her whole body. Gritting her teeth, she grabs a fist-sized chunk of marble in her right hand and waits. Eris hurls herself at Diana. This time, Diana jabs the marble into Eris’ wrist, cutting it enough for her to scream and drop her sword. Diana jumps to her feet. Her entire right arm protests and pushes back as she hoists the fallen column over her head. Then she smashes it over the sword, separating the blade from the hilt.

Eris looks as if there are daggers in her eyes. “I will kill you with my bare hands,” she seethes. Diana backs up again. She raises her left arm defensively and steps back. Her left shoulder throbs and burns. Her right arm hangs uselessly at her side. Eris’ expression is a combination of fury and gloating. Diana backs up further, luring Eris toward the base of Artemis’s statue. She already knows what she will find there, and how to end her.

##

He allows the attack. He angles his body so that the sword will slash through his arm, yes, but finally, Nyx will be close enough for Steve to get his hands on him. Thunder blasts from across the temple and the ground shakes. A woman screams. He jerks his head around, pivoting slightly. There is blinding hot pain between his lower right ribs, then the throbbing begins. Nyx is close. They are connected by his sword. He falls onto the splintery rubble when the sword withdraws. 

##

Eris pursues Diana all the way to the base of the statue. The vines grow thick here. Silver arrows poke upwards from the vegetation. Diana deliberately stumbles and falls between weeds and weapons. Pain shoots up her arm and into her head, and sweat drips from her brow, blurring her vision. For a moment, the two sensations nearly blind her. Eris must be tired as well; she would have killed her by now, otherwise. Only a seconds pass before Eris hurls herself over Diana’s supine body. Diana foists her self onto to her side and screams from the dizzying pain of the weight bearing on her arm. Eris lands prone an inch away from Diana. She turns her head to face her. Eris looks surprised, then angry. Between the two women, one of Artemis’ arrows punctures Eris through the abdomen and past her spine. Eris’ eyes open wide. Diana hadn’t noticed before that without the hardness and hatred, they are terribly afraid and as green as the Elysian Fields themselves. She sends a prayer of thanks to her guardian goddess as Eris fades away. She prays on Eris’ behalf to Hera for mercy. From Apollo’s end of the temple, she hears her colleagues shriek Steve’s name in unison. She lifts off to fly but falls. Her wounds are too deep and too severe. She runs toward her friends, toward Steve, as fast as she can.

##

Steve can’t move. Nyx looms over him, only it isn’t the Nyx he remembers. A woman with silver hair and a tunic that makes him think of absolute night hoists her sword above his chest. Diana screams his name in the distance. He recognizes the battle fury in her voice. He tries to call out, but something warm and metallic fills his mouth and coats his tongue. There’s so much to say. Too late. Nyx circles the point of her sword over him like a pendulum. She’s taking her time. What is she waiting for? Diana. She’s waiting for Diana so she can watch them die together. Diana will come to him. He swallows hard and senses thick blood and mucous slide down his throat. She will follow him to the afterlife by arrangement, just as he gasps his last breath. He understands now that Nyx was always aware of this fact. If she kills him, Diana dies too. Stupid, stubborn woman, he thinks, shutting his eyes. And she says his romantic gestures are sometimes over the top. But they all knew this was a trap, going in. He’d wanted their life together to be longer than this. He recalls a prophesy she showed him a few months ago, just after their wedding. There were children. There was old age. Will there even be a world worth living in? Have they lost? He opens his eyes and awaits the inevitable. 

##

She might as well run knee-deep through quicksand. The time to close the distance between Steve and herself should be a few seconds. Each step seems to suck her deeper into the earth, into some crack that leads to Hades Himself. She doesn’t see him, though. She sees Nyx’s back. Nyx has discarded her human shell, and the body lies crumpled on the ground. But Diana does not have the time or strength to mourn that poor, foolish mortal who wanted to be a god. Nyx’s arms are raised. The apple of the sword extends back and Diana screams Steve’s name again.

##

The blade whooshes down, but nothing happens. Something heavy thuds next to him and the ground trembles. Diana shouts, “NO!” He tries to turn his head; in his periphery he sees an enormous green and red lump. The Hulk lies prone. An enormous blade pokes out from his back. Red tributaries stream from its source, gushing down the lines of his muscles. “Oh no,” he thinks. He again tries to speak, but the blood gurgles in his mouth. Underneath The Hulk is another body—a woman in black. There are dark blue boots next to the two bodies. A hand reaches down and grabs Nyx by the scruff of the neck. The Hulk’s limp body plunks another few inches into the crumbling floor. It begins to transform.

“Diana stop!” Clint yells. Something heavy thuds rhythmically against a pillar. Natasha comes behind him and props him in her lap. Next to him, Tony says, “I’m gonna get that wound staunched. This is gonna hurt.” And it does. Heat from Tony’s suit sears through his back. Sitting propped up hurts. But what holds his attention are Diana and Nyx. Diana is holding Nyx above her by the neck and pounding her against Apollo’s gigantic shin. He wants to stop her. He tries to move his hand, but Natasha gently presses it down to his side. “Stay still,” she tells him. She sounds sad. 

“Princess! It is not your place to pronounce judgment! Leave her to your gods,” Thor implores. Diana ignores him. She lifts Nyx’s unconscious form high above her head. As she sends her plunging downward for the death blow, Apollo’s huge, pink marble hand falls to the ground, catching her. Steve thinks of a baseball landing smack into a glove, a perfectly thwarted home run. This is Steve Roger's last coherent thought before awakening in SHIELD’s infirmary.


End file.
